Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 874 Midsummer on the Amur River

In June 1651, the ice floes near the mouth of the Heilongjiang River were rarely seen anymore, but the river water was still bitterly cold, which made it difficult for anyone who came here for the first time to adapt.

In fact, it is not only difficult for newcomers to adapt, but even Wang Shichuan, who has lived here for several years, feels that the winter here is too difficult, with heavy snow and intermittent traffic. If there is insufficient food, clothing or fuel reserves for winter , then it may be difficult to survive - after all, you can't cut wood in the cold of minus [-] degrees and wearing clothes that are not very warm like those Russian farmers. They are left after being naturally selected by the harsh climate of the Northland race, but you are not.

"Life is not easy!" Wang Shichuan sighed, secretly lamenting in his heart that Heilongjiang is a ghostly place. The land is very fertile and the products are rich enough, but it is really too cold. Compared with the warm hometown of Henan, it is really a heaven and an underground.However, Wang Shichuan himself has no regrets, because his family business has already fallen here: he not only owns [-] mu (he and his wife's land) in the east of Temple Street Gangcheng They also rented a vast pasture in the north of the city, and specially hired some hard-working Ainu people who came from Dabo to beg for a living to graze. They are not too big or too small in the local area.

With the gradual deepening of trade between the Heishui area and Denglai and Ningbo, leather, livestock, salted fish, medicinal materials and other commodities from the north began to be exported to the south in large quantities. Wang Shichuan took advantage of this shareholder style and sold 400 cows last fall. When I arrived in Ningbo, I made a profit of more than [-] yuan, which was equivalent to my income from farming for many years.The rice, wheat, beans and other agricultural products shipped from the south have also effectively lowered the local food prices that have been high for many years. This has further attracted those Shandan people who are suffering in the mountains and fields to come and seek refuge, causing the population of Temple Street Port to skyrocket. , the original crude walled city began to be overwhelmed.

In order to alleviate this situation and better manage the strategically significant land at the mouth of Heilongjiang River, with the approval of Shao Shude, the leader of the Heishui Development Team, the people of the East Bank decided to "reform the land and return it to the people" of Temple Street Port, that is, to change the original Temple Street The basic situation of local self-government was changed to the direct jurisdiction of the Heishui pioneering team government. At the same time, [-] households were immigrated here, and Wang Shichuan and others were transferred from Gonghezhai to serve as officials to manage local civil affairs.

After more than a year of rectification, there are more than 4800 residents in Temple Street Port and its surrounding villages, and Ming people account for about 88%.In addition, with the development of the local economy, more and more Shandan people living in the middle and lower reaches of Heilongjiang are volunteering. Under the guidance of their superiors, Wang Shichuan and others established three new settlements nearby before winter last year. , respectively, are located in Hamburg near Parvo, Russia in later generations-a fence made of strips of bricks, named after the original 700 wounded and retired German soldiers were all located here.Now Shao Shude has exiled many lawbreakers from Denglai, Ningbo and other places (the number is about [-]) to come here. In Wang Shichuan's view, the name "Hamburg" has become more worthy of its name.

Now Hamburg has more than 1400 Shandan people, Ming people and other ethnic groups who have settled and pioneered in the area. In the short term, they still need blood transfusions from the Blackwater Pioneering Team, but I believe that after a few years, this place will basically be self-sufficient. , no longer need blood transfusion from the outside world.

In addition to Hamburg, Wang Shichuan also built a new settlement, Shunyi Village, on the basis of a Shandan village on the east side of Lake Qilia.In the establishment of this settlement, Barkin, the chief of Shandan, who first joined the people of the East Coast, made great efforts. In the village, on the one hand, he acted as a money-spreading boy to form a good relationship, and on the other hand, he used his own personal experience to persuade one or two hundred sturdy Shandan people here to vote, and made great contributions to the development of the East Bank here. He was directly promoted to "section chief" by Shao Shude.

Compared with Hamburg and Shunyi Village, the last settlement was also built on a native village.However, this village does not need to be persuaded by anyone. They voted on their own initiative - because their life is too difficult.The Feyaka tribe, located on the original site of the Russian Peter Winter Camp (west side of Happy Bay), has less than 200 people, men, women, and children. They live by hunting and fishing on weekdays (in summer, they salvage seaweed, pick up shells, shrimps and crabs) as food supplements), the extremely low level of productivity, coupled with the relatively harsh natural environment, so its population has never been able to increase.

Kurhan, the captain of the former Marshal Mo Mingmo's guard (security team, with more than 470 elite scouts), is a Feyaka (Kiriak), but he is a Feya from the northern end of Sakhalin Island across the sea. Khaki people.Because of the confession of the captured Siberian Cossack Pavlov, Kurhan has been transferred to the vicinity of Temple Street Port since last year. Wandering in the old forest.While drawing maps and expelling Russian scouts, they focused on visiting native tribes and bribed them with gifts to lure them to vote.

The Feiyaka tribe took refuge with the people on the east bank under such circumstances. The leaders of this tribe were stunned by the goods such as spirits, tobacco, sugar, salt, metal knives, cotton coats, and coal pellet stoves brought by Kurhan. With their eyes closed, while expressing their allegiance to the "Great Khan of the East Coast", they also reported a situation to Kurhan: Occasionally outsiders came by boat from the sea near their village to spy on intelligence.

Kurhan and others preliminarily judged that these "outsiders" were probably Siberian Cossacks based on the situation described by the Feyaks. They should have come to spy on information in the Amur River Basin under the order of the Yakutsk Warlord. By the way, conscript and tax the natives.As for where they came from, it is likely to be the city of Yayan, which is further north than this. It is said that the Cossacks had a camp there, where many armed soldiers and serfs were stationed all year round. At the same time, many natives were enslaved to fish and hunt for them. And farming, more or less a threat.

Shao Shude, who received this information, attached great importance to it. At that time, he ordered to build a camp on the original site of this native village, and named it Zhenbei Fort.At the same time, he also retired the first batch of Polish soldiers who came to Shandong to fight (many of them were in their 40s and 244s when they came, and they are not suitable for fighting now), and then collectively resettled them here to grant land. settle down.The arrival of a total of [-] experienced Polish veterans has greatly strengthened the defense of Zhenbei Fort, making it impossible for the Cossacks to get involved here in the short term.

In November last year, these retired Polish veterans arrived at Dabo Port by boat. After hearing that the weather in the north had turned bad, the sea was rolling with waves, and there were a lot of ice floes, they took advantage of the situation and settled down in Dabo.After the sea ice was frozen solid in mid-December, this group of people rode sleds all the way north from the sea to Heishui Port, where they spent the coldest winter.At the end of May after the beginning of spring this year, they arrived at Temple Street Port on a shallow-water gunboat transporting supplies to the Heilongjiang River Basin, and then changed to horses again to go north. At this moment, they had almost arrived at Zhenbei Fort. confluence.

"After the establishment of several fortresses, the population increased day by day, and the defense force gradually increased. These bitter Shandan people are all good at hunting or fighting, and they can endure hunger for a long time, so they are a good source of soldiers. It’s just that the discipline is a bit lacking, but it doesn’t matter, it will improve after a long period of training. If the Tartars can train these people to be disciplined, can’t our Dadong’an be successful?” Wang Shichuan just led a team from Temple Street Port Returning from a patrol in the eastern region, looking at several "Amur River"-class inland river shallow-water gunboats moored at the pier, he thought to himself.

As the highest officer of the four townships in the Miaojie area, Wang Shichuan has just received an order from the south: the commander-in-chief of the Heilongjiang theater stationed in Bolizhai, and the commander of the 105st company of the 1th company of the army who returned to China in rotation (last year from the mainland) Arriving here) Captain Chang Kaisheng ordered him to immediately carry out military mobilization in several towns near Temple Street, and recruit young men of all ethnic groups who are skilled in combat skills to Temple Street Port for training, ready to support the southern region at any time.

The reason for this order is mainly because Bolizhai received some unconfirmed rumors a while ago, that is, among the Daur people, Hezhe people, Oroqen people and Mongolians living in the middle reaches of the Amur River, there is a Manchurian Borg News that Dehan has invited the Kingdom of Korea to join the Raksha people in attacking the pirates in yellow.The news spread so well that even the Emperor of Manchuria was able to say how much money he had spent and how many benefits he had promised in exchange for the sending of troops from these two families, as if he had experienced it himself.

Although Chang Kaisheng was skeptical about the news, he didn't dare to neglect it, so he immediately sent people to inquire about the news.If Ningguta Zhangjing Shaerhuda of the Qing Dynasty wanted to send troops to conquer the people on the east bank, then he must recruit troops from the native tribes along the Amur River, or rely on the only remaining [-] soldiers in Ningguta. , really can't do anything.But as soon as soldiers are recruited, the news cannot be concealed. The native tribes living along the Gein river have communicated with each other for hundreds of years. Although they belong to Manchuria, the east coast, and Russia, they are inextricably linked The relationship is often still there, and the news will spread to everyone within a few days. There is no secrecy at all in any large-scale military operation.

Chang Kaisheng’s inquiries really revealed something, for example, the Raksha people were warmly received by the envoy of Bogd Khan in a certain village; Buying supplies; for example, Sharhuda began to collect food, horse mules, young men, etc. from various tribes, and a series of news were found out-these news were not deliberately concealed, and they could not be hidden from anyone. .

Based on the various intelligences obtained, Chang Kaisheng immediately judged that the Manchu Qing Dynasty would soon have a large-scale military operation, and the target was likely to be the old opponents from the East Coast.After reaching this conclusion, Chang Kaisheng dared not neglect. He immediately wrote to the Blackwater Pioneering Team to report the situation and ask for reinforcements. To deal with any armed conflict that may come.

"It's time to send out Curry's iron armor, and let the assembled young men practice their battles first, so as not to be in a hurry when they really want to go into battle." Wang Shichuan made up his mind and started to deal with it as soon as he returned to the city This matter, because it will soon be the most comfortable midsummer season of the year on the Amur River, and many local wars take place at this time, so it can't be sloppy.

"Perhaps the Tartar court is going to send troops to attack Boli Village." Wang Shichuan thought, "After all, what we did here on the Amur River is not just digging the roots of the Tartars? The so-called Manchurian soldiers of the Tartars, since After entering the customs, although they could not fight without fighting, there are still many battle casualties and deaths. How many people are there in total? There are only 15 adults over the age of 60 and under the age of 14 in the Eight Banners of Manchuria and Han Dynasty For the rest, one death is one less. In the past, they were able to capture Nuzhen in the middle and lower reaches of the Amur River to make up for the loss, just like Huang Taiji's several conquests against the Saurons. But since my wise and mighty Marshal Mo decided to enter the Amur River and After the Manchu and Qing scrambled for the birth of the Jurchen, the Tartar court lost a lot of supplementary soldiers. Now it seems that it is finally in a hurry and is going to attack us. Heh heh, I want to see if the Tartars are still alive. How can we deal with the Invincible Iron Army of the Great Eastern Bank, which has already gained a firm foothold?"

(End of this chapter)